New guide on human rights in recovery co-published by BIHR and Scottish Recovery Consortium

We are delighted to share that BIHR and the Scottish Recovery Consortium (SRC) have published a joint guide which highlights the importance of human rights for people whose lives have been, or continue to be, affected by substance use.

The guide follows on from the Rights in Recovery Leadership Programme which was co-delivered by BIHR and SRC from 2022 to 2024. This programme aimed to support and empower recovery advocates in Scotland to use human rights in their work. To help others in similar roles to do the same, this guide has been designed for people accessing, or trying to access, recovery services, as well as their loved ones and supporters, to know and claim their human rights every day.

The guide sets out how and why human rights matter in a recovery context, providing an overview of our UK Human Rights Act and some of the key rights that come up all too often for people in recovery when they interact with public services, including their right to be free from discrimination (Article 14, HRA). The guide also features real-life anonymised stories to bring human rights law to life, including some from members of recovery organisations that have worked with SRC.

The guide was jointly created by Annie Smith, a Senior Human Rights Officer at BIHR, and Tom Bennett, Rights in Recovery Officer at SRC. Annie spoke about the impact of knowing about human rights in recovery:

It was a total pleasure to work on the Rights in Recovery Leadership Programme earlier this year. I witnessed first-hand how a group of passionate recovery advocates almost instantly were able to use their new-found knowledge of human rights law to change conversations with public officials and get better outcomes for people in recovery. With this guide, I hope the message can spread more widely: that people whose lives are affected by alcohol and drugs are not only deserving of human rights, but there is a UK law which can be used to help make sure their rights are real and respected every day.

And Tom from SRC spoke about our aspirations for this guide, in Scotland and further afield:

Scottish Recovery Consortium hopes that this guide will help to empower people, recovery communities and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LERO’s) to participate in the process of understanding and claiming their human rights.

We believe that by becoming aware of, and developing an understanding of our legally protected human rights, individuals and groups can play an important role in the implementation of a human rights-based approach which will help to make recovery possible for everyone.

The joint guide is now available on BIHR and SRC's websites. Click here to read the guide: 'Using Human Rights in Recovery'.